Continuity Errors Star War

[rcs619]

One of my favorite errors was brought up by Robot Chicken:

Sure, the Rebels blow up the Death Star and kill the Emperor at the end of Jedi......buuuuuuut doesn't the Empire still have a MASSIVE fleet? Was there no chain of command to put someone new in charge to wipe out the Rebels which are now all conveniently in the same spot?

That one can be chalked up to loss of morale. The Empire just saw their unstoppable doomsday weapon (ver 2.0) blown up, with their leader and top generals on board, and saw their flagship (the Executor) destroyed along with the Endor base. Seeing all of that go down in the space of a few minutes to an hour (possibly a bit longer) could be enough to crush in will to fight.

Speaking of the Executor. This one always bothered me.

When the star destroyer task-force warps in, they are directly across from the Death Star, sandwiching the Rebel fleet between them. Able to easily bombard them to pieces and/or let the Emperor get his massive space-errection on by laser'ing them to death with his space battle-station.

So... how did the Executor get all the way over to the Death Star where it was destroyed? Why would it ever approach the Death Star so close? Also, its huge, and heavy, and slow. How could it move all the way over there during the course of a space battle (it couldn't have been that long in real-time). Why not just hold position and bombard the rebel ships with the other star destroyers?

Also, and this is more of the naval nerd in me, how does a starfighter crashing into the bridge cripple a 20km long starship? Why didn't it have a redundant bridge like any sensibly designed super-capital ship? Why was the bridge itself right there on the massive exposed tower, instead of nestled near the core of the ship, between a kilometer of armor on either side? I know this can be chalked up to "Sci-fantasy, world war II in space" and "George Lucas really doesn't know how to design starships"... but it always did bug me.

Also, if I remember right, those ball thingies aren't shield generators. I think I remember reading that, officially, starship shields are generated by these little rods that stick out all over the hull.

 

[Rodimus_NZ]

No continuity errors in the original trilogy... Between physical and SFX errors, there are also dialogue errors.

For example, I'll just name one which is at the beginning of 'New Hope'. At the beginning the Corvette get's attacked by the Destroyer, C3-PO says to R2 "There will be no escape for the Princess this time." Yet when Luke triggers the recording while cleaning R2, he mentions he doesn't know her, "someone of importance, I believe".

Goto www.moviemistakes.com and search for the movies.

That's a lie, not an error. C3-PO isn't going to talk to some hick about the princess and the rebellion.

OT:

1. Leia discussing her mother in ROTJ except that their mom died in childbirth...
2. Obi-Wan talking about meeting Anikan when he was a young fighter pilot in the Clone Wars. Except that Anikan was never just a fighter pilot.
I could go on (meaning: If I wanted to take the time to think of more I would, but I don't)

But in the original movie Obiwan doesnt say he MET Anakin during the Clone Wars. He confirms Luke's statement that he fought in the Clone Wars with Luke's father... which he did. He also says that when he met Anakin he was already a great pilot and how amazed he was at how in touch with the Force that Anakin was, he says nothing about what kind of pilot he was. So this can't be considered an error in continuity either.

 

[Xariat]

If Starkiller from The force unleashed could bring down a destroyer by himself using only the force, why are there still other jedis being regarded as prodigies? Did luke ever bring down an empire destroyer? no? then he can go sit in a corner.

In all seriousness I never payed much attention to Star wars so don't take anything I say regarding the matter seriously

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

Here's what I want to know about it: even assuming it did waddle it's big butt on over to the Death Star during the course of the battle.......why did it "sink" once destroyed? People explain it as the DS having it's own gravity, but that being the case wouldn't it remain in "orbit" around the DS? When it crashes, it's completely nose-down as I recall, meaning it had time for the front end to "sink through space" enough for it to nose-dive into the DS.

 

[Bobic]

Also, not a continuity error, just a ridiculously stupid thing that I consider an error, and will complain about here because there's nothing you can do to stop me. But, apparently, according to some source on the internet I've forgotten, in the 'extended universe' Boba Fett apparently doesn't die in the sarlacc pit, he flies out and goes on space adventures. Hell, even Robot Chicken didn't go that far. This is maddening, this is the kind of fanfiction I expect from the ass end of the internet. It's just lazily pandering to one of the most ridiculous sub-fandoms ever(seriously, Boba Fett has like 2 lines, and get's killed slapstick style by a blind guy, he doesn't deserve a fandom).

While I don't like Boba Fett, it makes sense that a guy in armour could potentially survive a beast that takes centuries to digest its meals.

Ugh, don't remind me of that, I've seen a diagram of what that Sarlac is meant to look like under the sand. I find it highly doubtful something that big could last off of the occasional Hutt execution and whatever banthas are apparently too stupid to look where they're going. (unless it perhaps releases a pheromone or something that attracts them, I dunno). Then again, I'm no xenobiologist. Or, in fact, a regular biologist, so my word is far from final judgement.

To be more on topic, admittedly, you do have a point, I'm just pretty sure the logic of how it could happen came secondary to the 'I bet any book with that guy on it's cover will sell like mad' logic. Basically I was playing off of this line:

continuity has been bent and broken in order to "sell-out" if you will

 

[EHKOS]

No continuity errors in the original trilogy... Between physical and SFX errors, there are also dialogue errors.

For example, I'll just name one which is at the beginning of 'New Hope'. At the beginning the Corvette get's attacked by the Destroyer, C3-PO says to R2 "There will be no escape for the Princess this time." Yet when Luke triggers the recording while cleaning R2, he mentions he doesn't know her, "someone of importance, I believe".

Goto www.moviemistakes.com and search for the movies.

That's a lie, not an error. C3-PO isn't going to talk to some hick about the princess and the rebellion.

OT:

1. Leia discussing her mother in ROTJ except that their mom died in childbirth...
2. Obi-Wan talking about meeting Anikan when he was a young fighter pilot in the Clone Wars. Except that Anikan was never just a fighter pilot.
I could go on (meaning: If I wanted to take the time to think of more I would, but I don't)

Your explanation to the person you quoted can be applied to your errors as well. Leia could be talking about her adoptive mother, and Obi-Wan could have just left the other parts out, because he sensed it would not be the right time to tell Luke about the whole Mustafar incident.

 

[Bobic]

I'm still trying to figure out how the hell the empire took over the galaxy when their tie fighters have no shield generators and are made of aluminum. The rebels main fighter has four laser cannons, a droid, an optional ion cannon,two proton torpedo launchers, and a shield generators. Tie fighters have two solar panels and two blasters. Not even shields. And their stormtroopers wear a steel and plastic hybrid armor that makes it hard to move and doesn't protect against rocks and sticks, let alone blasters. They'd be better equipped in underwear and headsets. The emperor must have had a hell of alot of leftover clones and some really good recruiters. Either that, or all the rest of the galaxy's warriors were made of cake and flowers.

The Tie Fighter was a fast, agile ship that - when piloted well - could do some surprisingly serious damage. They were also dirt-cheap, and the Empire was in the position to field them in mind-boggling numbers.

I have to ask, but if the empire was in the position to field them in mind boggling numbers, why was the first death star protected by about a dozen?

 

[Driekan]

Snip

Here's what I want to know about it: even assuming it did waddle it's big butt on over to the Death Star during the course of the battle.......why did it "sink" once destroyed? People explain it as the DS having it's own gravity, but that being the case wouldn't it remain in "orbit" around the DS? When it crashes, it's completely nose-down as I recall, meaning it had time for the front end to "sink through space" enough for it to nose-dive into the DS.

It does take having a bit of speed in order to maintain orbit. If the DS has significant gravity (Big IF there), and if the Executor was stationary in relation to it at the time the bridge was destroyed (Another huge IF!), it would have indeed fallen towards the TS.

The whole idiocy is explained away as... Navigation systems all over the ship had been failing (due to it being under fire from the entire rebel fleet at point-blank range at that time), and that A-Wing crashing into the bridge actually caused a lot of internal system damage, as opposed to "just" killing off the bridge crew. Damage-control crews were unable to regain control of the ship's navigation systems in time.

That's the thing with the OT. There are a lot of pretty insane things going on, but EU authors seem a bit obsessed with hammering nails in, and they do a fairly decent job a lot of the time. Doesn't mean it was the original intention all along, but it does end up making some kind of sense, some of the time.

Most of the rest of the continuity is not nearly as fortunate.

Captcha: "Good for nothing". Seems somehow adequate.

 

[newfoundsky]

Anyone ever notice how the series repeats its self over and over and over again (Especially in the EU.)? Biggest error I've found is that the Yuuzon Vong are apparently mutant humans or something from the edge of the galaxy. . . Even though just in Episode one (about. . . like 50 years?) all the humans were fine and slaves to winged elephant people. . .

 

[Scarim Coral]

Well for one thing, in that episode of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars when they had to recuse that tiny Jedi (I forgot his name but he is smaller but abit taller compared to Yoda) and that guy who become Darth Vader general in Episode 4. He died during the episode HOWEVER in the main continuity he was still alive during the clone wars (at least up to the Order 66) like e.g. the animated series Clone Wars (that scene when they discuss about Anakin.

 

[rcs619]

Snip

Here's what I want to know about it: even assuming it did waddle it's big butt on over to the Death Star during the course of the battle.......why did it "sink" once destroyed? People explain it as the DS having it's own gravity, but that being the case wouldn't it remain in "orbit" around the DS? When it crashes, it's completely nose-down as I recall, meaning it had time for the front end to "sink through space" enough for it to nose-dive into the DS.

I'm not totally sure it 'sinking' is all that incorrect. The Death Star is the size of a small moon, but made totally out of heavy metals. Well, it would only be in orbit if it had established an orbit prior to it being crippled. If it just waddled over and squatted, with no propulsion (stupid, stupid, stupid to let a ship that size ever lose all acceleration in a space battle), then it could have been pulled down.

So, it would have gravity. Still though, didn't the Executor have any redundancy systems? Why did the destruction of the bridge completely take out engineering and propulsion? Shouldn't there be local control from either of those? Or a redundant bridge with a full secondary command crew? Did the Empire never consider that people might target the giant tower everyone knows the captain and Darth Vader himself, sits in?

And even back on the original point. Why pull up right next to the Death Star? Why not bombard from range and keep the Rebel fleet sandwiched within the kill-zone? Its not like even the Executor's turbo-lasers could have hurt the Death Star, so it could have just fired away without fear and murder the rebel fleet. Their ships were barely a match for regular star destroyers, much less something like the Executor.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

Fair enough, but still one woud think that if it had the literal space to go completely vertical and nose-dive into the DS, that it would have been far enough away from the DS to avoid crashing immediately. With the loss of power and momentum, that would at best (according to my admittedly meager understanding of physics ) put it into a decaying orbit around the DS, and certainly wouldn't completely up-end the ship and bring it down in a matter of moments.

 

[Driekan]

I'm still trying to figure out how the hell the empire took over the galaxy when their tie fighters have no shield generators and are made of aluminum. The rebels main fighter has four laser cannons, a droid, an optional ion cannon,two proton torpedo launchers, and a shield generators. Tie fighters have two solar panels and two blasters. Not even shields. And their stormtroopers wear a steel and plastic hybrid armor that makes it hard to move and doesn't protect against rocks and sticks, let alone blasters. They'd be better equipped in underwear and headsets. The emperor must have had a hell of alot of leftover clones and some really good recruiters. Either that, or all the rest of the galaxy's warriors were made of cake and flowers.

The Tie Fighter was a fast, agile ship that - when piloted well - could do some surprisingly serious damage. They were also dirt-cheap, and the Empire was in the position to field them in mind-boggling numbers.

I have to ask, but if the empire was in the position to field them in mind boggling numbers, why was the first death star protected by about a dozen?

That Death Star had a complement of nine thousand Tie Fighters.

In the Millenium Falcon's chase, they didn't deploy more because Vader wanted them to get away (To give away the location of the rebel base). In the full engagement, Tarkin didn't authorize launching this complement because he didn't believe the X-Wings attacking the station had any chance whatsoever of causing it any harm. I suppose the logistics of getting replacement starfighters all the way to the front is a pain in the ass.

Just to point out: I'm giving away the official explanations. I'm fairly certain most of these had not been considered when the movies were first made, making them, indeed, legitimate continuity failures.

 

[teebeeohh]

"What do you mean we've lost? They blew up the Death Star before and we kept fighting!"
"Yyyyyeeeeeah...but this time they blew up the Death Star AND killed the Emperor. So they won."

The Empire DID keep fighting. But you consider the Battle of Yavin (the reference point of "before" in this joke), they had time to go back for an awards ceremony before they bugged out. Doesn't sound inconsistent.

i mean, it's funny if you don't look at it, but come on.

Also, seriously, mobilising a military that large when it's based on a philosophy of absolute obedience?

Yeah, can't say that I've read any of the books so I was just going off of what I saw in the movie. If the Empire is still around and chasing after those meddling rebels in the books, then yeah, my argument falls flat so I won't keep it up.

the empire is still around and chasing the rebels, they did retreat because a system build with everyone using fear to control those below them in the hierarchy falls apart when the only guy who everyone fears if gone. and by the time the Imperial remnant(that what they are called till they...ok, i will stop here) get's organized a lot of worlds have broken loose from the empire since the entire empire was so focused on the emperor that they couldn't keep up the discipline. kinda like how the greek empire under Alexander the great immediately started dissolving when he died. or the mongol hordes. or the Huns under Attila.

 

[Driekan]

Snip

Fair enough, but still one woud think that if it had the literal space to go completely vertical and nose-dive into the DS, that it would have been far enough away from the DS to avoid crashing immediately. With the loss of power and momentum, that would at best (according to my admittedly meager understanding of physics ) put it into a decaying orbit around the DS, and certainly wouldn't completely up-end the ship and bring it down in a matter of moments.

If it had been completely stationary in relation to the DS (Which seems to be the official explanation), it would indeed have fallen towards it with the full acceleration of the DS' gravity pull. Which could be quite significant, if official sources are to be trusted.

Why it goes tip-down like that, I still don't understand.

 

[RJ 17]

Snip

Fair enough, but still one woud think that if it had the literal space to go completely vertical and nose-dive into the DS, that it would have been far enough away from the DS to avoid crashing immediately. With the loss of power and momentum, that would at best (according to my admittedly meager understanding of physics ) put it into a decaying orbit around the DS, and certainly wouldn't completely up-end the ship and bring it down in a matter of moments.

If it had been completely stationary in relation to the DS (Which seems to be the official explanation), it would indeed have fallen towards it with the full acceleration of the DS' gravity pull. Which could be quite significant, if official sources are to be trusted.

Why it goes tip-down like that, I still don't understand.

Annnnd that's the crux of my complaint.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

If we're going to do this there should be no rules, no exemptions. Every part of the mythos should be fair game even the original trilogy.

 

[Bobic]

I'm still trying to figure out how the hell the empire took over the galaxy when their tie fighters have no shield generators and are made of aluminum. The rebels main fighter has four laser cannons, a droid, an optional ion cannon,two proton torpedo launchers, and a shield generators. Tie fighters have two solar panels and two blasters. Not even shields. And their stormtroopers wear a steel and plastic hybrid armor that makes it hard to move and doesn't protect against rocks and sticks, let alone blasters. They'd be better equipped in underwear and headsets. The emperor must have had a hell of alot of leftover clones and some really good recruiters. Either that, or all the rest of the galaxy's warriors were made of cake and flowers.

The Tie Fighter was a fast, agile ship that - when piloted well - could do some surprisingly serious damage. They were also dirt-cheap, and the Empire was in the position to field them in mind-boggling numbers.

I have to ask, but if the empire was in the position to field them in mind boggling numbers, why was the first death star protected by about a dozen?

That Death Star had a complement of nine thousand Tie Fighters.

In the Millenium Falcon's chase, they didn't deploy more because Vader wanted them to get away (To give away the location of the rebel base). In the full engagement, Tarkin didn't authorize launching this complement because he didn't believe the X-Wings attacking the station had any chance whatsoever of causing it any harm. I suppose the logistics of getting replacement starfighters all the way to the front is a pain in the ass.

Just to point out: I'm giving away the official explanations. I'm fairly certain most of these had not been considered when the movies were first made, making them, indeed, legitimate continuity failures.

I knew about the Falcon chase, but as far as the full engagement goes, there is quite a lot of middleground between 12 and 9000. So I don't think I'll accept that official explanation. Still, I appreciate having someone here who does know the official explanations, because I'm far too uninterested to do my own research. So thanks.

 

[Driekan]

Snip

Apparently Vader launched his personal squadron against Tarkin's wishes, and those were the only Tie Fighters in the air (space?) during the entire engagement. So... Yes, indeed quite few. The 9.000 were just sitting in the hangar looking prim and pristine.

Snip

Fair enough, but still one woud think that if it had the literal space to go completely vertical and nose-dive into the DS, that it would have been far enough away from the DS to avoid crashing immediately. With the loss of power and momentum, that would at best (according to my admittedly meager understanding of physics ) put it into a decaying orbit around the DS, and certainly wouldn't completely up-end the ship and bring it down in a matter of moments.

If it had been completely stationary in relation to the DS (Which seems to be the official explanation), it would indeed have fallen towards it with the full acceleration of the DS' gravity pull. Which could be quite significant, if official sources are to be trusted.

Why it goes tip-down like that, I still don't understand.

Annnnd that's the crux of my complaint.

"It looks better that way" doesn't count, does it? lol.

Anyway... If we're going the whole "The empire had too many resources to be crushed like that" route of discussion, things can get even worse. If The Force Unleashed is canonical, the empire had the capacity to clone force sensitive people without any negative consequence, which means...

There wouldn't be a single Vader running around. There'd be thousands of Anakins, all nicely brainwashed, all fully empowered. Scary thought.

 

[II Scarecrow II]

Alright, I'll see what I can contribute to this thread. First of all, the entire Empire's forces. Whoever posted earlier was right when they said that they inherited the army from the republic, and they inherited the entire clone army. In addition to that, particularly as the clones grew old, they were gradually replaced by soldiers recruited through normal channels. Military recruitment was much the same as it would be for someone in America I would think, with military schools, cadets and the like. Anywho, as for the Empire's fleet, they were in disarray after the Emperor, Vader and most of the high ranking Admirals and Captains were killed around Endor. There were still large numbers of ships controlled by the Empire, and I believe that a lot of the books mark the next decade as a "mopping up" operation as the Moff's and system governors create their own little empires and dictatorships with their small fleets. In addition, less than a week after the Battle of Endor, an Imperial system came under attack by unknown hostile aliens called the Ssi-Ruuk and would likely have been tied up defending themselves rather than exacting revenge.

As for the cloning operation that produced Starkiller... Well, I consider TFU to be about as canonical as fanfiction, but anywho. The technology used to create the clone armies was thought to be lost after the Clone Wars (for reasons I am not sure)and is not rediscovered until the reign of Grand Admiral Thrawn almost a decade after the Battle of Yavin, so I have no idea how they managed to clone anyone let alone a force user, although they even managed to clone the Emperor at one point. Sidenote - The Thrawn trilogy is probably my favourite of the book series, give it a read if you haven't.

Someone mentioned the Yuuzahn Vong being mutant humans. While I cannot remember 100% accurately, I think they MIGHT have been humans that were sent on a secret expeditionary mission beyond the edge of the known galaxy and never returned.


There are a lot of cop-outs, edits, retcons and just plain wrong continuity in the Star Wars universe, but it is also likely THE largest and richest sci-fi universe bar none. If you use THIS LINK [http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timeline_of_galactic_history] to the Star Wars Timeline, it will give you a lot of information of the events and a good starting point if you want to find out more about something. In fact, I just found out that the New Republic was actually defeated and replaced by the Sith/Empire AGAIN about a century after the Battle of Yavin.